There are three stages in scientific discovery. First, people deny that it is true, then they deny that it is important; finally they credit the wrong person.
Bill BrysonRead
I always tell people there's only one trick to writing: You have to write something that people are willing to pay money to read. It doesn't have to be very good, necessarily, but somebody, somewhere, has got to be willing to pay money for it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing should appeal to an audience willing to pay for it, regardless of its quality.
Bill Bryson emphasizes the practical aspect of writing, highlighting that the most crucial element is not necessarily the quality of the writing itself but the writer's ability to create content that resonates with readers enough for them to be willing to invest financially in it. This statement underscores the importance of understanding one's audience and market dynamics in the writing profession.
Themes
WritingAudienceMoneyContentQuality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a writing workshop to encourage participants to focus on audience engagement.
More from Bill Bryson
All quotes βFor most of us the rules of English grammar are at best a dimly remembered thing. But even for those who make the rules, grammatical correctitude sometimes proves easier to urge than to achieve. Among the errors cited in this book are a number committed by some of the leading authorities of this century. If men such as Fowler and Bernstein and Quirk and Howard cannot always get their English right, is it reasonable to expect the rest of us to?
Bill BrysonRead
I became quietly seized with that nostalgia that overcomes you when you have reached the middle of your life and your father has recently died and it dawns on you that when he went he took some of you with him.
Bill BrysonRead
Open your refrigerator door, and you summon forth more light than the total amount enjoyed by most households in the 18th century. The world at night, for much of history, was a very dark place indeed.
Bill BrysonRead
The universe is not only queerer than we suppose; it is queerer than we can suppose
Bill BrysonRead
Those who sniff decay in every shift of sense or alteration of usage do the language no service. Too often for such people the notion of good English has less to do with expressing ideas clearly than with making words conform to some arbitrary pattern.
Bill BrysonRead
Similar quotes
Every lecture should state one main point and repeat it over and over, like a theme with variations. An audience is like a herd of cows, moving slowly in the direction they are being driven towards. If we make one point, we have a good chance that the audience will take the right direction; if we make several points, then the cows will scatter all over the field. The audience will lose interest and everyone will go back to the thoughts they interrupted in order to come to our lecture.
Gian-Carlo RotaRead
Young screenwriters are always very frustrated when they talk to me. They say, 'How do we get to be a screenwriter?' I say, 'You know what you do? I'll tell you the secret, it's easy: Read 'Hamlet.' You know? Then read it again, and read it again, and read it until you understand it. Read 'King Lear,' and then read 'Othello.'
John LoganRead
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
Derek BokRead
School has become the world religion of a modernized proletariat, and makes futile promises of salvation to the poor of the technological age.
Ivan IllichRead
We can't afford not to educate girls and give women the power and the access that they need.
Michelle ObamaRead
I read books when I was a kid, lots of books. Books always seemed like magic to me. They took you to the most amazing places. When I got older, I realized that I couldn't find books that took me to all of the places I wanted to go. To go to those places, I had to write some books myself.
Pat MurphyRead